Hundreds of South Koreans who were arrested in September 2025 during an immigration raid at a Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant in Georgia are suing the U.S. government.
About 475 South Koreans were arrested during the raid executed by nearly 500 immigration agents.
Some of the Hyundai workers claimed they were on valid visas but were unlawfully arrested and detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities for days, CNN reported on Tuesday.
The plaintiffs filed administrative claims with federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, the Department of Justice and others.
CNN said the arrested workers claimed they were shackled and suffered inhumane treatment in the overcrowded ICE holding facilities.
Other workers, according to the masthead, alleged they were forced to sign documents whose wording they did not understand.
“The U.S. government used the false pretext of finding four undocumented people to send hundreds of agents in full armour to storm the worksite of a Korean company that is one of the largest contributors to the American economy,” CNN cited a U.S.-based South Korean attorney as saying. “Before the whole world, they put engineers who had come lawfully to install equipment in handcuffs and shackles and paraded them like criminals, shaming all Koreans before the world as if Korean companies were invading the US labour market.”
The attorney, practising in Georgia, sought to remain anonymous. She said it was of utmost importance that the aggrieved workers be represented by their kinsman.
Contacted for comments, DHS told CNN that ICE “executed a judicial search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”
